{"id":9671,"date":"2006-05-16T06:09:43","date_gmt":"2006-05-16T13:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2006\/05\/16\/we-only-want-it-to-fight-the-terrorists-right.html"},"modified":"2006-05-16T06:09:43","modified_gmt":"2006-05-16T13:09:43","slug":"we_only_want_it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/05\/16\/we_only_want_it.html","title":{"rendered":"We only want it to fight the terrorists, right?"},"content":{"rendered":"

So last week, ABC News reported that a “senior law enforcement official” had told them that the phones of their investigative correspondents were being “tracked”<\/a> by the government, in an attempt to ferret out leaks of confidential information. The content of the calls was not being monitored (so they were told), but the numbers being called were being recorded and analyzed.<\/p>\n

Now, leaks of governmental secrets are a serious matter. On the one hand, they serve, as a last resort, as a public oversight of the government. In an administration where such oversight has been resisted, denied, or legislated away, such leaks are sometimes the only way the public can find out about programs that it, rightly, ought to be unhappy with.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, there are <\/em>activities that the government must do in secret, to some degree at least. Revealing such programs can endanger folks on the ground, threaten future abilities (or sources), or otherwise hamstring govern,ental action against threats to national security. One would expect, then, the government (whether consisting of evil crypto-fascist or white-hatted defenders of liberty) to go after those who leak secrets, however they can. <\/p>\n

Interestingly, though, further info obtained by ABC<\/a>, while indicating that the phones of ABC, the WaPo, and the NY Times, are not being “tracked,” says that what’s being gathered up by governmental sources are phone call records after the fact. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt used to be very hard and complicated to do this, but it no longer is in the Bush administration,\u201d said a senior federal official.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Swell.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the FBI press office said its leak investigations begin with the examination of government phone records. \u201cThe FBI will take logical investigative steps to determine if a criminal act was committed by a government employee by the unauthorized release of classified information,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

Officials say that means that phone records of reporters will be sought if government records are not sufficient.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Which, I suppose, makes sense. As long as, well, it’s something that can’t be abused.<\/p>\n

Oops.<\/p>\n

Officials say the FBI makes extensive use of a new provision of the Patriot Act which allows agents to seek information with what are called National Security Letters (NSL).<\/p>\n

The NSLs are a version of an administrative subpoena and are not signed by a judge. Under the law, a phone company receiving a NSL for phone records must provide them and may not divulge to the customer that the records have been given to the government.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Because the PATRIOT Act was, of course, intended to help the government track down whistleblowers and internal leaks, hence its lack of judicial oversight. Of course … not. It was intended <\/em> and presented <\/em>to allow shortcuts, expediencies, and highest security to allow the feds to combat terrorists. <\/p>\n

But these aren’t terrorists, of course. They may be illegal\/criminal activities, but that’s not what PATRIOT was purported to be about. Except, of course, whenever you give the government authority, especially without oversight, it will <\/em>be used however it can <\/em>be used. If that means checking out reporters’ phone records, so be it. If that means checking out my phone records, and the phone records of folks I’ve talked to, and the phone records of folks they’ve talked to — well, why not. And, more importantly, what’s to stop them?<\/p>\n

“Power corrupts,” as Lord Acton put it. The secrecy of administration activities — secrecy about which the administration has been, if not paranoid, then fiercely adamant about, even to the point of putting out innumerable singning statements on laws saying that, well, if the Presdient decides it needs to stay secret, it will stay secret, regardless of what the law itself says — has built a reputation, not of security, but of mistrust. We don’t know that these powers are being egregiously misused, but we know they’re being stretched — and knowing the magnitude of what we don’t know (because it’s a secret, right?) can only lead one to wonder how much abuse is actually taking place, and how it could ever be stopped if it were.<\/p>\n

(via J-Walk<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So last week, ABC News reported that a “senior law enforcement official” had told them that the phones of their investigative correspondents were being “tracked” by the government, in an…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fourth-estate","category-homeland-security"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":136419,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/05\/12\/but-arent-leaks-wrong.html","url_meta":{"origin":9671,"position":0},"title":"But aren’t leaks wrong?","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 12-May-18 8:19pm","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the dangers of these polarized times, and of the 2- or 3-Sigma behavior of Trump and his Administration, is that it invites similarly extreme opposition, and acceptance of behavior of that is generally frowned upon, justified as \"Well, Trump is an ass-hat, and so are the people who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/sarah-huckabee-sanders.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":136448,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/05\/16\/leaks-arent-a-problem-but-we-must-hunt-down-all-leakers.html","url_meta":{"origin":9671,"position":1},"title":"Leaks aren’t a problem, but we must hunt down all Leakers!","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 16-May-18 7:26am","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realDonaldTrump\/status\/996129630913482755 https:\/\/twitter.com\/18965459\/status\/996273986299486208 Trump tries to both deny WH leaks are a problem (or maybe, even, that they exist) AND that WH leakers will be hunted down as traitors. https:\/\/t.co\/vEIcKTGMj7","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/leak1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/leak1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/leak1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/leak1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/leak1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":132852,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/02\/15\/tweetizen-trump-2017-02-15-leaks-mean-bad-evil-leaks.html","url_meta":{"origin":9671,"position":2},"title":"Tweetizen Trump – 2017-02-15 "Leaks! Mean, bad, evil leaks!"","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 15-Feb-17 8:24am","format":false,"excerpt":"Well yesterday seemed dominated by the brouhaha at the White House, Donald, as your National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn, resigned (or, we are assured, was fired by you) for ... well, honestly, the story has changed so often it's hard to tell. Was it for making inappropriate, possibly illegal, certainly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Trump%2Btweet%2BRussian%2Bconnection.JPGimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Trump%2Btweet%2BRussian%2Bconnection.JPGimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Trump%2Btweet%2BRussian%2Bconnection.JPGimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":133934,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/22\/tweetizen-trump-2017-07-22-leaks-leaks-more-leaks.html","url_meta":{"origin":9671,"position":3},"title":"Tweetizen Trump – 2017-07-22: "Leaks! Leaks! 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